Stress
by Lil'Shiro's Stalker
Summary: This is what happens after the Kishin was revived and all of the paper work it created. No pairings, I know this might dissapoint my fellow yaoi fans, sorry. Ps I changed the title because it makes more sense.


For the whole month of November I have decided to write as many fanfictions as I possibly can. Because I can't just randomly pull ideas for them out of thin air I looked through my books of famous quotes and tried to write a drabble involving Stein that (kind of) goes along with it. It's actually a lot more fun than it sounds!

"When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on." Franklin Delano Roosevelt

"Damn!"

"Ne? What's wrong Spirit?" Shinigami-sama asked. It was 10:30 at night and they were stuck in the office. They had been filling out paper work since 9:00 am. By now, all of the school's students had gone home and most were now laying in their beds dreaming about ninety-nine kishin eggs and a witch soul.

The disgruntled employee threw his pen at one of the crosses that were protruding from the ground. "I'm sick of this! No matter how hard we work more reports and insurance forms keep pouring in! Why do we have to be the ones to do this?"

"Because," the god explained, "It is our job as a shinigami and Death Scythe is to keep the peace and protect the world from the Kishin." He pointed with a puffy white finger, "and part of that duty is to file the reports from our students. The insurance forms are also our responsibility considering our students tend to destroy a building or two while trying to capture a kishin egg."

Spirit nodded his head. "I know that. What I don't know is why we have bigger stacks of paper than normal!"

"Don't say 'bigger', it makes you sound like an idiot."

Shingami waved. "Hey there Stein! What cha need?" Both Stein and the god seemed to ignore the fact that Spirit jumped when he heard the new voice.

The silver haired man shrugged. "I just came by to drop off my report."

Hearing this Spirit over came his immediate shock of having a mad man randomly popping up behind him and looked at the tall stack of papers and folders in the scientist's arms. "You got a be kidding me."

"Kidding about what senpai?"

"All I have been doing today is filling out forms and just when I thought that I could leave soon you come in here with even more papers." Spirit crouched down in a corner with a dark cloud hanging over him. "Ever since Ashura came back all my time has been spent working. If this keeps up I will never be able to be a good father to Maka."

Stein walked over to the morbid man in the corner and put a hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry Spirit. Maka understands that as a Death Scythe and the weapon of Shinigami-sama, that you have many responsibilities."

Spirit sniffed and lifted his head with a hopeful look. "You think so?"

Now most people would reply by smiling and shaking their head in understanding. But a best friend would tell the truth, all the while smiling. "Nope."

The depressed and heart broken father's jaw dropped. "Why?"

Shinigami decided to finally join in on the conversation. "Maybe because you spend your free time at the Chupa Cabra Cabaret flirting." Now you would think that he would use a stern tone, but in keeping with his care free and cherry disposition. "Now then, back to business." He turns to Stein completely ignoring the crying man in his corner. "So the paperwork…"

"Yes sir. I have gone through the records, books, and notes that Sid brought back from the house Medusa had lived in before the Kishin was revived." He continued as he put the stack on the table, "I will be back in twenty minutes with another stack.

Stein had just grabbed the door knob when Shinigami called him. "You mean this isn't everything?"

"Of course it's not." Stein said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "There are still six stacks at my lab. The only reason I brought this is because I can only carry two thousand forty-three hundred and twelve pages and seven folders with out dropping any thing."

"All I asked from you was to read through her notes and summarize them so we could understand what they are saying. You didn't have to write so much!" He replied.

To this Stein shook his head. "Yes I know that. So I did exactly what you asked." As he continued his explanation he pulled out a cigarette and lit it. "Medusa, after all, is a very intelligent scientist as such her work is very complex and involves extremely advance knowledge of theoretical science." Pausing to check if his audience was listening. Apparently they had no idea what he had just said. "And this is why I had to write so many reports. Both of you have no experience what so ever in the scientific field, so I had to explain my explanation of my explanations."

Spirit cried out while grabbing his head. "You're kidding me! It's going to take for ever to read this. At this rate I will never be able to win Maka back!"

Now he had done his best to be patient with the red haired scythe through out their conversation, but now he was fed up with standing by while his ex-weapon had been whining and he made sure to make this known. "Well I am _so_ sorry for making your life so difficult _senpai_. But considering that there's a kishin on the loose, an evil snake obsessed witch, and Arachnophobia, all of who would like nothing more than to kill us all, I should think that you would try to man up to your responsibility as a Death Scythe and quite complaining!"

Spirit stood there with his eyes wide open. Stein had always made fun of him when he was annoyed, but had never yelled at him like this. Sure he might tell him to shut up or call him useless but he had never snapped at him before.

"Now if you do not mind, I have to get back to my lab to get another pile of papers." And with that he walked through the door and slammed it shut.

After a while Spirit had finally managed to find his voice. "What the hell was that all about?"

The two stood there in silence until Shinigami sighed and sat down at the table and mumbled to himself. "Oh my oh my." He picked up his already half empty cup of Deathbucks coffee and took a sip. "Poor Stein-kun, he really must be feeling stressed."

"We've all been working hard and we are all stressed. But almost every one is doing there best to deal with it."

Shinigami nodded his head. "Yes that is true. But as you have just saw some people are having a difficult time dealing with every thing that is happening."

"You mean because of the Kishin's madness?"

"Yep. We both know that Stein's soul has been mixed with insanity, but things are even worse because it has been intensified by the Kishin's madness." He paused waiting for what he had said to fully sink in. "Not only is his insanity growing but he has been pushing himself to hard. All he has been doing these past four weeks involved reading and deciphering the witch's notes. He's been going through every thing that had happened in regards to Medusa to make sure he had not forgotten any valuable information. It is obvious that he is the only one in Death City who could possible understand her research and Stein knows this. So he has dedicated all of his time and resources into his task. And as you can remember once he has his mind set on something he does not allow any thing to interfere."

The red head, who had been silent the whole time, thought back to his time as his weapon. What Shinigami had said about Stein was true. When the younger scientist had set his mind on any thing he would not rest until he had accomplished his goal. He had been known to work non stop until he would collapse because of insomnia and fatigue.

Now that Spirit thought about it he had noticed that over the past couple of weeks that Stein had come to work with bags under his eyes but had been to busy to think to much of it. Now he scolded himself for not noticing how stressed his friend had been. He sighed and rubbed the back of his head. "Great, now I feel like a total jerk."

"I wouldn't worry to much Spirit. Stein will get over it soon. He was never the type of person to dwell on things that are not science related. Just give him some room and things will go back to normal."

"Ya, you are probably right Shinigami-sama."

Shinigami grabbed the stack of reports that Stein had brought. "Now, we should probably start reading these so we can ask Stein any questions we might have when he comes back with the next pile"

Well I hope you enjoyed my little drabble! To the people who are wondering 'why isn't she finishing her other story?' I will tell you that I've been extremely busy with school work and writer's block, but don't worry I will get back to it eventually!

Carl: You know most people don't care right?

Shiro'sStalker: Yep

Carl: Than why did you put it in?

Shiro'sStalker: Just in case there are one or two people who do care and that were thinking that I had left the story to rot in my basement/dungeon.

Carl: Fare enough.


End file.
